Digestive System

The digestive system is a group of organs (from the mouth to the rectum) that processes food so the body can use it. The following sites explain the process with illustrations and animations for all age groups.

"Simply put, the digestive system is a portal for nutrients from the environment to gain access to the circulatory system. Before such transfer can occur, foodstuffs first have to be reduced to very simple molecules by a combination of mechanical and enzymatic degradation." Dr. Richard A. Bowen, biology professor at Colorado State University, presents an overview of the digestive system for high-school and college students. Put this site on your must-see list if you are writing a school report, or are doing research for a science project.

For elementary grades, Enchanted Learning explains the digestive process, defines twenty-three digestive-system terms, and includes two printable handouts. The first fill-in-the-blank handout asks the student to label eleven body parts in the anatomy diagram. The second increases the labels to seventeen. Follow the link to Human Anatomy for more lessons and more printable goodies.

This digestive system tour is one of ten anatomy system animations at Innerbody.com. To navigate around the images, click on the colored squares (called pick points) to display a label and additional annotation. Some pick points also display a magnifying glass, indicating an additional image is available. To return from the new image to the original, use your browser back button. After the tours, you'll find more great clicks in the Animation and Tutorial sections.

"Even before you eat, when you smell a tasty food, see it, or think about it, digestion begins. Saliva (say: suh-lye-vuh), or spit, begins to form in your mouth." This one-page illustrated article summarizes the process of digestion for middle-school students. Best clicks are the Digestive System Full Diagram (roll your mouse over the labels to learn about each organ) and the interactive games. You'll find the games (a Digestive System Quiz and Word Search) in the "More Articles Like This" tab. This same article, re-written for parents, can be found here.

Yucky turns science into fun by tackling the topics that elementary and middle-school kids like to laugh about: belches, farts, gurgly stomachs, poop and vomit. This page tells the stinky story of digestion. For more gross fun, visit the pages listed under Pick a Bodily Function. How does our digestion story end? "Finally, the end of the large intestine is in sight! Now the drier leftovers are various handsome shades of brown. They sit, at the end of their journey, waiting for you to expel them -- out your anus. Of course, you know the rest! A glorious, if slightly stinky, journey, don't you think? "